AI-Powered Microchips Are Finally Here- No, Not That Kind

What if everybody had an internet connection at all times, along with lower data bills, and all of this used less energy?

There have been countless developments in the area of artificial intelligence lately. Major corporations like Google and Amazon are all currently racing to develop the most attractive-looking AI programs with the flashiest capabilities. Some programs will have conversations with you. Some will generate completely original images for you- or more recently, even videos. The newest application of AI won’t do these things, but in the form of the Qualcomm FastConnect 7900, it could solve all your WiFi-related problems within the next few years. 

Qualcomm, Inc., a leading US software company, has recently developed a microchip that they’re advertising as the first “AI-optimized WiFi”. Normally, whether it be on your phone or your computer, WiFi runs into internet traffic. The rate at which a certain amount of data can be transmitted over a WiFi network is known as bandwidth. The more devices there are operating on a certain network and frequency, the more likely the bandwidth is to be exceeded, and it’s in cases like this where our webpages stall out or our calls freeze. You can read more about what exactly network traffic is here. 

This is where the AI component comes in. The FastConnect 7900, which will come built into devices such as cell phones, utilizes a program that allows it to manage all the different programs on a device while balancing bandwidth and latency (note that latency is not the same as bandwidth- this refers to the delay before information is received, not the quantity). This is all done by the chip itself, not an external source such as a router. As a result, people’s devices become more energy efficient, capable of saving up to 30% power continuously. 

“I think I should get a WiFi chip put in my head,” commented Aaron Alonso, a junior at Harborfields High School and leading expert in wireless technology. 

While benefits such as these may not be as easily noticeable by your average person, some are much more obvious and attractive, like those of XPAN. XPAN is a new sound system also developed by Qualcomm aimed at enhanced audio quality for headphones and similar devices. Benefits of this system include the ability to switch between WiFi and Bluetooth automatically, lossless audio without any effects on bandwidth, and the “strongest ever ANC [active noise cancellation] process” that the company has made to date. All in all, it’s something they claim will revolutionize audio streaming, and critics for the most part agree. 

When XPAN was first unveiled back in October 2023, many were pessimistic. Just like any other piece of emergent technology, this system is expensive. Very expensive. For headphone companies to even incorporate XPAN into their products would often put them out too much money, and that isn’t even accounting for the consumer perspective. As amazing as this technology is, most people wouldn’t be willing to spend potentially hundreds of extra dollars on what XPAN offers. 

When asked about whether he’d be willing to pay more for these sorts of features, junior Benjamin Oren answered plainly, “heck no. Not at that price.” According to the music lover, “it’d be worth it if it was [another] 30 dollars or something, but definitely not over a hundred.” That’s the mindset a lot of people first viewed the new sound system with. “We also won’t see any audio products containing [XPAN] for several months,” explained The Verge. “How well this juggling of WiFi and Bluetooth might actually work in practice remains a big question for now.”

Things are looking up though. Now that the FastConnect has been introduced, and XPAN is a part of the package, there’s a good chance that it will be integrated into many mainstream wireless products- in particular, the iPhone. This will obviously mean raised phone prices yet again, but it’s not like that has ever deterred people in the past. 

Right now, Qualcomm plans to release this product to the public some time in late 2024. As of now, there are no known early adopters, so we’re all still in the dark in regards to how this will actually function. We definitely have something big tech to look forward to later this year though; at the same time, we need to get our presumptions of what AI is out of our heads. The FastConnect isn’t the most visible use case for AI, but it isn’t one of a kind. This is far from the first time AI has been implemented under the radar to boost our technology- and it definitely won’t be the last.